


Cool Rider

by poiregourmande



Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series), In Control with Kelsey (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fake Character Death, Fraternities & Sororities, Motorcycles, grease 2 au, side shyan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2019-11-01 08:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17863967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poiregourmande/pseuds/poiregourmande
Summary: Annie's always felt like the odd one out, but here at Rydell College? Everything is so performative. Everyone wants to be seen, and they’re ready to do anything to be noticed.Frats and sororities are the epitome of this, and Annie wants nothing to do with any of it.Enters Kelsey, a blonde angel and the heartthrob of Phi Lambda.or, the Grease 2 AU that shows just how niche my interests can get.





	1. Act One

**Author's Note:**

> yes. a grease 2 AU. blame it on michelle pfeiffer heralding my sexual awakening when i was fourteen.  
> no, you don't need to know or care about the movie to understand.  
> yes, some stuff was directly copied from the movie.  
> yes, i had to rework half the plot so it would make sense.  
> yes, it takes place in college because who cares about high schoolers

You’d think Annie would be used to it by now. New school, new town, year after year… Her mom travels for work, and she always said she couldn’t stay in one place for more than a year. Annie learned early enough how to deal when you’re always the new kid. Stick to the walls and don’t make waves. Pay no mind to anyone else.    
  
But college is... different. She’s here for four years. If things go south, she’s stuck here with the same people for like, half a decade. Stakes have never been higher and there’s no hope of a respite before graduation. She’s always felt like the odd one out, but here at Rydell College? Everything is so performative. Everyone wants to be seen, and they’re ready to do anything to be noticed.    
  
It’s hard to mind your own business when everyone else is trying to stick theirs in your face.    
  
Take today, for example. Annie’s sitting on the lawn, trying to get through Camus without falling asleep, when a squad of four dudebros drop down on the grass near her. Apparently, four feet away from her is prime grass real estate, even though the quad is almost empty.

Maybe  _ because _ the quad is almost empty, actually. After all, they need an audience for their push-up contests, or whatever else they’re on about. Annie should probably pack up and leave – it’s not like there’s any hope of getting any work done through all the rowdy  _ yoooooo _ s and  _ duuuude _ s. But she can’t give them the satisfaction.  _ Don’t let them know they’re getting to you  _ is the first rule of staying invisible and thus, surviving. 

She turns the volume up in her headphones, tries to lose herself in her favourite Vampire Weekend album, but apparently the dude named Bergara – dark hair, arms sculpted in tan marble, handsome if you like that kind of guy, she supposes – just creamed the one named Evans – blond, taller but lither, would be the one she’d call pretty out of the bunch – in their crunches contest, and that’s reason enough for them to lose their minds louder than the loudest setting on her headphones. 

“Loser pays for shots tonight!” Bergara declares. 

“No way, bro, I paid last night!”

“Then maybe you should think better of challenging the undefeated crunch champion Bergmaster.”

One of the other guys – tall, with Korean features and a shoulders to waist ratio that immediately brings to mind a Dorito – scoffs. “You’re undefeated only because you know it’s useless to challenge me.”

“You’re on, Ghang. You and I, two –  _ three _ witnesses,” Bergara corrects, sending what’s obviously meant to be a devastating smile towards Annie. 

Annie rolls her eyes and holds her book up higher before her face, pretending to read even though she can’t focus. 

“Tan, will you do the honors?” Ghang asks the last guy, handing him a stopwatch. “One minute.”

Ghang turns his back to her and on the back of his cut-off tee she can see Greek letters. Frat boys. She should have known. 

With a resigned groan, she starts packing her stuff. She hates being cooped up inside on a nice day like this but she’s got a feeling the library might be the only place she can escape frat boys. 

“We lost a witness!” she hears as she walks away, nose in her book. “I demand a recount!”

Another eye roll. 

“Boys, huh?”

Annie looks up from her book to see someone’s fallen in step with her. 

Scratch that, not  _ someone.  _

An angel. 

A literal angel, gorgeous and beaming and luminous. Annie can’t refrain a smile. 

“Frats, actually.”

The girl shrugs. “Don’t pay them any mind, they’re harmless.”

“I just don’t get the whole Greek system, actually… it’s all very performative and disruptive, to be honest. I’m just here to learn.”

The girl eyes her dubiously. “For four years? You’re gonna learn and nothing else? I think you’ll find making friends might help you with, y’know… not going insane.”

“I have friends.”  _ Two  _ friends, Annie thinks, but doesn’t say. 

The girl pulls on the sleeve of Annie’s pins-and-patches-covered denim jacket. “Well, if you ever want another… I’m Kelsey.”

“Annie.”

“See you around, Annie.”

It’s only when Kelsey turns around to leave that Annie realizes her bubblegum pink bomber jacket’s got shiny Greek letters stitched on the back. 

Great. 

Annie’s still frozen in the middle of the lawn, staring at the door Kelsey disappeared behind, when someone bumps her shoulder. “Sup, nerd.”

“Hey, Niki.”

“Everything good?”

Annie shrugs as they make their way in. “Nah. I just met the most beautiful girl in school and then I insulted everything she holds dear. I should just move out, change schools –”

“Okay, okay, hold on, I’m sure it’s not that bad. Who’s the girl?”

Annie scoffs like it’s obvious, like there can only be one ‘most beautiful girl in school’. “Her name’s Kelsey… she’s blonde, in a sorority – I didn’t catch the name but she had a pink bomber jacket.”

Niki stops in her tracks. “Oh god, don’t tell me you fell for a Phi Lambda?”

“Is it bad?”

“I mean… Lambda girls tend to only go for Theta Beta boys.”

_ Theta Beta… _ she recalls the Greek letters on that Ghang boy’s shirt. “Ugh, these guys?”

“You met them?”

“They decided their fitness contest needed an audience.” Annie gestured at herself. 

Niki winces in sympathy. “So what’s this about insulting everything Kelsey holds dear?”

“She saw me rolling my eyes at the CrossFit Bros, so she commiserated, but then I ended up dissing the entire Greek system.”

“Annie!”

“I didn’t know she was in a sorority!”

Niki winces. “You shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Annie shakes her head self-deprecatingly, hands shoved deep in her jacket pockets. “Now what do I do?”

“You spend the next four years making yourself as scarce as possible around her and you never utter a single word against  _ or about  _ the Greek system ever again.”

Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

 

***

 

“Okay, okay, but give me  _ one _ –” Zack holds up a finger emphatically – “just one good reason why you won’t give Ryan a chance.”

The traditional monthly bowling outing. On paper, a chance for Phi Lambda and Theta Beta to network and form academic relations. In practice, an excuse to find your next one-night stand, pretty much. And an excuse for Beta boys to bug the girls. 

The thing is, Kelsey likes Ryan. He’s sweet, when you get to know him alone. But she’s never been the type to enjoy being pushed into someone’s arms. 

Not to mention, Ryan looks super uncomfortable, on his phone, trying his hardest to ignore his buddies and not look Kelsey in the eye. Nothing in in his demeanor hints that he would even want Kelsey to give him a chance. 

She rolls her eyes, doesn’t even deign to answer Zack, and walks up to the lane to choose her ball – a pink and lilac marbled one that speaks to her girly side. Strike! She barely has time to high five YB before the boys are at it again. 

“Look,” Ned says, “you never know what might happen. Ariel and I started with just one kiss and now look at us…” He looks fondly over at the next lane, where Ariel is jumping around after knocking seven pins. 

Ariel and Ned are like the mom and dad of Lambda and Beta. They’re seniors and they’ve been together since they first pledged four years ago. As such, everyone looks up to them as examples, as a reason why Lambdas and Betas should keep inbreeding. 

“Yeah, one kiss,” Justin says, draining his beer. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Look, Ned, I’m sure you and Ariel are really happy, but this is not for me. I don’t kiss people because everyone tells me to, or because it’s Phi Lambda legacy to be with a Beta. I kiss whoever I want whenever I want. Hell, I’ll kiss the next person to walk in if I want to.”

Kelsey has always had a tendency to run her mouth and get in trouble, so of course, saying something like this would only tempt fate. 

Because who would walk in at this very moment but Annie, the cute girl she met last week on the quad. 

The boys – mainly Justin and Zack – break into a Greek chorus of  _ ooooooooooooohh _ that is entirely unnecessary. 

Flipping her hair behind her shoulder, she walks up to Annie and plants one on her. 

As far as kisses go, it’s pretty PG, no tongues, no hands above or below the shoulders, but it sends a thrill down Kelsey’s spine regardless. Annie looks at her like a befuddled Magikarp for all of five seconds before fleeing. 

So that’s just great. 

A classic, really. Kelsey meets someone cute and the only thing she manages is to make it awkward. 

Unwilling to go back to her friends – Zack and Justin are probably having a field day about the kiss – she slinks outside for some fresh air, perching on a cinder block in the parking lot. Footsteps follow her a few minutes later. 

“I’m not in the mood, okay?” she calls out. 

“Kels.” Ryan approaches, hands raised in a non-threatening manner. “Can I sit with you?”

She scooches over to make some room on the block. “Ugh. It’s all such a mess.” She stretches her arms before her, presses hard into nothing, wishing she was at the gym to work all the bad vibes out, push some iron and turn her brain off. 

“You’re telling me,” he says, and he’s stretching too – she recognizes her own habits and coping mechanisms in him. 

“Sorry, by the way,” she jerks her head towards the bowling alley. “I didn’t, like,  _ not _ want to kiss you, it was the way they pushed.”

“Oh, Kels…” Ryan gives a sad smile. “No offence, but I didn’t wanna kiss you. I – I have someone in my life.”

Kelsey turns to him and grins. “That’s so nice!” 

But Ryan’s smile stays sad. She pokes him in the cheek. “It is nice, right? Why aren’t you happier about this?”

Ryan rakes a hand through his hair. “Shit, I just… We’re not ready to go public. And when I see the guys pulling that kind of bullshit… we probably never will be.”

“Why, is she from a rival sorority? Is she not in a sorority? Gasp! Ned is gonna freak – he’s already writing his speech for our wedding—”

She’s rambling again and really, this is Not The Time – Ryan’s frowning, twisting his fingers in his lap like he doesn’t know how to say it. 

“No,  _ he’s _ not in a frat. But believe me, it’s not the frat part I’m worried about.”

Kelsey’s face falls, trying to picture the way Zack, Justin, or Ned would react if Ryan walked in hand in hand with a boy. “Do you think they would…”

“I’m not eager to find out, y’know? Like, I love them, they’re my brothers, and in theory they’re open-minded, but when they pull shit like that…”

“No kidding.”

“So now I gotta decide between getting potential crap for dating a dude, or getting actual crap for not dating you.”

“Or…” Kelsey looks at him, bright eyes and scheming smile. “We could pretend we’re dating.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not! Look whenever we’re around our friends, we act the sweet new couple, and the rest of the time, you keep doing what you already do, which is sneak around to meet your boyfriend. It’s foolproof.”

Ryan raises an eyebrow at her. 

“Okay, maybe not foolproof, but it would get them off our backs, no?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good! So, who is this guy anyway?”

Ryan flushes an adorable soft pink. “His name is Shane, he’s in my History of Cinema class.”

“Cute?”

“Tall like you wouldn’t believe.”

 

***

 

“And then I just froze!” Annie hides her face in her hands. “The cutest girl in school kissed me and I just froze…”

Niki sips on her milkshake, regarding her like an unexpected experiment result. “Didn’t we say you should keep away from her?”

“You forced me to come bowling!”

“I didn’t tell you to kiss her!”

“Again,  _ she  _ kissed me, I just happened to be there.”

“And she didn’t say anything?” Jen asks, picking at Niki’s fries. 

“Nope. She just looked like it was the biggest mistake of her life and so I ran before she could speak.”

“Girls,” Jen sighs, shaking her head. 

“Tell me about it,” Niki nods. 

“You’re gonna have to ask her out.” Jen points at her with a fry, eyebrows knitted with wisdom she doesn’t actually have. 

“What happened to avoiding her at all costs?”

“Annie. Annie, Annie, Annie, my good friend.” Niki squeezes her shoulder. “That was back when we thought you blew it. She kissed you, and that changes everything.”

 

***

 

“Talent show.” Jen slams a neon purple flyer down on Annie’s desk. “I heard your fair lady talking about joining.”

“So?”

“That’s your in. You need to get yourself on that show and spend time with her.”

“Like I have any talents.”

“Sure you do! You…” Jen fiddles with the flyer, folding and flattening a corner over and over again. “I’m sure they need volunteers so everything runs smoothly.”

“You’re not actually supposed to agree with my self-deprecation.”

“I’m just taking care of you! Even with all your talents, you still get anxious on stage. They would be lucky to have you behind the scenes.”

“Good save.”

“I thought so too.”

Annie smooths the flyer down to look at the auditions details. “Tomorrow? That’s not nearly enough time to prepare for asking her out!”

“You don’t need to prepare for that!” Jen voice goes deeper and she gives Annie a goofily seductive look. “Hey. Wanna go out for dinner with me on Friday?” An eyebrow wiggle. “See? Easy!”

“So how are things going with Kristin?”

“I fail to see how that’s relevant.”

 

***

 

They end up giving Annie the task of making sure everyone’s got what they need before they walk on stage – microphones, props, etc. – so she stands backstage with a clipboard list, feeling way more important than any freshman should in a senior-ran production. 

She gets so into her job that she completely forgets why she volunteered in the first place. Her heart gives a tremendous lurch when she sees Kelsey at last.  _ Shit. Shit shit shit _ . What does she do?

Annie stares at her list, eyes almost boring a hole in the sheet, but somehow there’s nothing on it about how you’re supposed to ask a girl out. She tries to run out the clock, pretend to be really busy until it’s Kelsey’s turn on stage, but the guy before her is singing a very whiny, very drawn out version of Blue Moon and you can only ignore someone standing next to you for so long before it gets awkward. 

Eventually, she just has to suck it up. She takes a deep breath and gives a tiny smile, as she starts outfitting Kelsey with a lapel mic. 

“Hey, um.” She can’t quite look at Kelsey but at least she’s saying words, so that’s a start, right? “I was wondering if you’re free tomorrow night?”

“I’m free everyday, it’s in the constitution.”

Annie can hear the smile in Kelsey’s voice and she can’t repress a laugh. 

“I meant… to get dinner with me?”

“Oh. I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“How about the day after tomorrow?”

Kelsey looks suddenly quite uncomfortable. “Can’t.”

“I’m free pretty much every night,” Annie throws out, feeling reckless and more than a little clingy. “Whatever time works for you.”

“I just.” Kelsey looks down at her feet. “I can’t go on a date with you. Look, um. I’ve got a boyfriend.”

“You kissed me.” Even to Annie’s ears it sounds entitled and whiny. 

“Look, it doesn’t have to be a big deal, this is college, everyone kisses anyone. Not – not that you’re anyone,” she adds softly as Annie’s face falls. 

A microphone-amplified voice resounds. “Kelsey Imp-Impekiki!” 

The butchering of her name pulls Kelsey out of the moment and they realize the Blue Moon guy has left the stage. “It’s my turn.”

Annie can only nod and switch Kelsey’s mic on. 

 

***

 

Annie needs a distraction. 

Her studies, sadly, fail to hold her attention, and she starts seeing what Kelsey meant when she said Annie couldn’t just focus on school for four years without going insane. 

Funny how the very thing threatening her sanity is Kelsey herself. 

They haven’t talked since the auditions, but Kelsey still haunts her every thought, her dreams, in lectures and at lunch, in the shower and in bed. Annie needs to find something completely unrelated to Kelsey, something that will not remind her of everything she screwed up in the span of two conversations and a kiss. 

She’s walking absentmindedly behind Niki and Jen – they said a stroll in town would help – when she spots a gem that drives all thoughts of Kelsey out of her mind. 

“A motorcycle,” Niki deadpans as she looks back to see what Annie stopped for. 

“A Triumph Bonneville,” Annie corrects, like it makes all the difference in the world – and it does. 

“I didn’t know you were into bikes,” Jen says. 

“My aunt Mae used to take me riding on one just like it.”

She can see it so clearly. Little Annie, age twelve, with her own helmet, clinging tightly to Aunt Mae’s waist, feeling like she was invincible. 

It’s a garage like any other, called Zinone & Sons – she never even noticed it before. But the second-hand Bonneville set up in the parking lot is calling her, beat-up and flat-tired, with a sign asking for a thousand bucks. 

“I need a job.”

 

***

 

It becomes sort of an obsession. Annie stalks the job offers boards, both online and real life cork boards, tells everyone she knows to send leads her way, even scrolls mindlessly through Craigslist. 

Every other day, she goes downtown to make sure the bike is still there. After a while, Mr. Carrington, the garage owner, starts noticing her – he calls her the Bonneville Gal – and he’s nice enough but he can’t promise anything without a down payment. 

Luck turns her way two weeks later, when Zack Evans walks up to her after class. Now, Annie wouldn’t usually call a Beta speaking to her  _ luck _ , but they don’t usually offer to pay her for tutoring. 

“And all my bros, too.” he says. “We need to get our grades up if we wanna keep our frat privileges.”

Annie couldn’t care less about their frat privileges, but she’s not one to spit at a good paycheck. A week of this and she would be able to put a down payment on the bike. A month and the Bonneville’s hers. That’s the dream, really. But only on her own terms. 

“One. This is tutoring – I’m not here to do your homework for you. Two. You – and all your friends – need to put in the work. I don’t wanna waste my time talking to empty air.”

“You got it! We wouldn’t be paying if we weren’t willing to take this seriously,” Zack says, and for some reason, she believes him. 

“Deal.”

 

***

 

Annie can’t say she looks forward to the first tutoring session. Her ideal day, in fact, would have nothing to do with frat boys whatsoever. But as the week goes on, she discovers that most of them are just more suited to a one-on-one approach to teaching and that away from crowded classrooms and their brothers’ antics, they’re willing to learn and put in the work. 

It takes away some of her apprehension. The money Zack venmos her at the end of the week takes care of the rest of it. 

As she gets into a really interesting discussion about consent with Justin as she helps him with his psych homework, she realizes she may not have given them enough credit. Just because they don’t share a sense of humor and the same priorities in life doesn’t mean they’re terrible people. She begins to see why Kelsey’s friends with them. 

After she puts her down payment on the Bonneville, she tells Evan about it and he’s genuinely excited for her. He talks to her about the car he wants to buy – a real expensive thing, which he probably won’t get for another few years after college. Annie knows nothing about cars, but she knows a thing or two about speed and dreams, so she can relate. 

If you had told her a month ago she’d become friends with the Theta Beta boys, Annie would have told you to fuck off. 

Oh, how the turntables…

 

***

 

Annie is positively beaming as she makes her way to the garage with the rest of the money. Jen and Niki are coming along, although they can’t help asking what the hell Annie’s gonna do with a bike. 

“Go on rides? What else do you do with a bike?”

They don’t really get it – Annie didn’t expect they would – but when she tells them about her aunt, they’re stoked for her that she’s fulfilling a childhood dream.

Mr. Carrington grins when she walks in. “Bonneville Gal! You did it!” She’d told him all about her goal and how she was trying to get the money and he was delighted. “We don’t get a lot of new bikers nowadays,” he said. 

She slams her wad of cash on the counter and he tosses her the keys. “She might need a bit of love,” he says, and offers her to use the premises and tools – and his valuable advice, too. He lends her coveralls and she rolls up her sleeves and gets to work. When Jen and Niki figure out that it’s gonna take a while, they tell Annie they’re going for a walk in town. 

They come back three hours later. Annie’s covered in sweat and grime, in a white tank top, with the top half of her coveralls tied around her waist. They’ve never seen her this happy. “It’s working!” she calls, but they can’t hear over the noise of the engine so she turns it off. 

“It’s working!”

“I should hope so,” Niki says, “seeing as you shelled a grand on it.”

Jen elbows her. “Anyway, we got a little something for you.” She holds up a big paper bag from the thrift shop on Olsson Street. 

“Are you serious?” Annie’s eyes widen. “It’s not even my birthday or anything…”

“Open it,” Niki pushes. 

Annie goes to wash her grimy hands and comes back to find the most gorgeous leather jacket. The leather is soft from years of wear, but the clasps and snaps are still shiny. Annie shrugs it on, on top of her tank top and tied-up overalls. It’s perfectly oversized. 

Jen gasps and Niki clasps her hands together. 

“I don’t say this often,” Jen says, “but I’m so gay.”

Annie laughs it off. “You say it at least twice a day.”

“Well, I mean it. God _ damn _ you look incredible.”

Annie can’t see herself – have you ever seen a full length mirror in a garage? – but she feels incredible in it. Powerful, like she could step on someone. She pulls on the cuffs, pops the collar and zips it up. 

“This – this is amazing, but I… why?”

Jen lightly kicks the front wheel of the bike. “Like Kristin always says, you gotta look the part.”

“This is us saying we got your back,” Niki says, “even if we’re not into bikes.”

“You guys,” Annie says fondly, hoping they can’t see her eyes filling up. She pulls them into a bone crushing group hug. “I love you.”

“Go kick some ass,” Jen says, clapping her on the back. 


	2. Act Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you've read any of my other stuff you'll know this is very uncharacteristic of me, so ANGST warning. this act doesn't end well but i swear the third and last act will.  
> also one of the scenes is taken almost as is from the movie, i would very much like to take the credit for it because it's hilarious, but alas this is all ken finkleman i guess
> 
> disclaimer: i know nothing about hamlet, if anything is unfactual blame finkleman

Theta Beta and Phi Lambda are having their annual holiday cookout on the quad on the first day back for the winter semester. This is one of Kelsey’s favourite traditions: everyone’s coming together to cook and decorate a tree, even though Christmas ended two weeks ago. 

They managed to get a big shipment of snow, and right now the boys are in their swimming trunks and boots, shirtless with Santa hats, building a huge snowman. They make him a face out of beer caps and top it off with a Theta Beta baseball cap. It’s such pure boyish fun, Kelsey can’t help looking fondly upon them.

It’s a good thing, really, cause it helps sell her role as Ryan’s girlfriend — not that there’s much doubt left after two months, mind you. After a few weeks, their relationship stopped being such a novelty and became part of the scenery, so they could stop trying so hard to act the part. It got easier with time, too, as they got closer and didn’t have to fake the affection between them. 

The truth is, Ryan became her best friend. They go to the gym together every morning and Kelsey’s loving every minute of it. She met his boyfriend, Shane, and he’s such a delight, Kelsey’s more than happy to be doing this for them. 

She’s at the drinks table, making sure they have enough ice and cups, when all of a sudden she hears jeers and hollers. It doesn’t sound like her boys so she looks up. 

Sigma Kappa. 

A rival frat house, full of the shittiest guys this school has to offer. These guys don’t seem to have any hobbies outside of harassing people and getting into fights, and apparently they decided disrupting the Theta-Phi holiday cookout was the perfect way to spend their day. 

They’re currently surrounding the new freshman pledges, hurling insults — real bright stuff that no self-respecting Theta would ever utter — and half empty solo cups at them. 

“Hey!” Kelsey calls out, immediately regretting it as they turn on her, predatory gleams on their faces. 

Zack, Justin, Ryan and Evan are trying to come to her aid, but their boots are sinking into the pile of snow and they only manage to smash their snowman as they try to get out. 

The Sigma guys are getting closer, laughing stupidly through nicotine-yellowed teeth. Kelsey should run, but the pledges are looking terrified and she refuses to let such barbarians destroy their holiday festivities. Besides, her legs stopped working when they started on her. 

A rumble in the distance. Kelsey wonders distractedly if a storm’s coming and her first thought, stupidly, is that someone should cover the grill so it doesn’t get rained on. 

The rumble increases, gets closer. Just as the guys are closing in on her, their path is blocked by a thundering motorcycle, driving in their midst and sending them running like bowling pins. They barely have time to recover and regroup before the biker drives through them again, revving the engine. 

Sigmas run away, tripping over each other in their haste, pushing their brothers out of the way — every man for himself. 

The biker circles the area one last time for good measure, before stopping near the pledges to help straighten up the dessert table that got knocked away — before the desserts were on it, thankfully. They look a bit shaken up, but the biker seems to be making sure they’re okay — it’s hard to tell from far away. 

And then — Kelsey’s breath gets stuck in her throat because the biker drives up to her and stops the engine, and they’re, well, hot. 

Blue jeans ripped at the knee, a white tee, a soft looking leather jacket — Kelsey’s fingers curl with the need to touch. She can’t even see their face under the helmet and goggles, but she’s wobbly-kneed. And then the biker speaks. 

“Hey. You okay?”

The voice under the helmet is feminine, but deep, almost like honey, and Kelsey feels herself leaning forward into it. There’s something familiar in it, that Kelsey can’t quite place, but can’t bring herself to care. 

The girl pushes a strand of Kelsey’s hair behind her ear, her touch gentle and careful. This is when Kelsey realizes she’s still waiting for an answer. 

“Oh! Um yeah, I am. Thanks for…” she gestured vaguely towards the quad, feeling like she’s making a terribly lame first impression. 

Maybe she shouldn’t care about the kind of impression she’s making on a total stranger, but the thing is… she’s never felt like this before. The girl’s got a magnetic pull on her, and the fact that Kelsey can’t see her face makes the whole thing even more unsettling. It’s like the stranger can watch her from behind these goggles, see right through her soul and pull out her deepest secrets, all while staying hidden to Kelsey. 

The girl tilts her head, and Kelsey can only imagine a curious expression under the helmet. 

“Wanna go for a ride?”

_ Does she! _

Kelsey’s about to throw herself on the seat behind the girl, ready to wrap her arms around her waist and hold on, when she’s brusquely pulled back to reality by an arm sliding around her shoulders. 

“Kels, honey, are you okay?” Ryan asks worriedly, finally free of the snow pile. 

“Some other time…” The girl trails off and rides away into the sunset — or like, 2 PM’s sun.

It takes Kelsey a while to stop staring into the distance where the girl disappeared and answer Ryan, whose solicitous boyfriend bit is cute, if a bit unwelcome at the moment. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says, and she can’t blame Ryan for not believing her. They’ve been building a lie together for so long, he knows all her tells. 

She busies herself around, trying to salvage what she can of the festivities, and by dinner time, everyone’s grilling and drinking, and they all seem to have forgotten he mysterious rider. 

Even Kelsey’s sisters didn’t seem to notice her completely melting in front of the cute biker — it probably didn’t last longer than a minute or two, though it felt like years to Kelsey. Instead, they’re gushing over Ryan running to her to see if she’s okay. 

“I can’t believed you snatched the cutest, most devoted Theta of them all,” Maya says. 

“Cutest?” YB says. “No offense, Kelsey, but um, have you  _ seen _ Evan?”

“Honey, we’ve all seen Evan,” Devin says, “but the thing is, he only sees you.”

YB goes beet red and lets out a giggle. “What? No! He doesn’t!”

Kelsey would usually agree with Devin, dish about what she heard or noticed, and they would tease YB and make a plan to get her on a date with Evan. As it is, she’s glad her friends are distracted from their gushing about Ryan, and she lets her thoughts fly away to a certain mysterious biker girl. 

What would have happened if Ryan hadn’t joined them? Would Kelsey have climbed behind the girl? Asked her to take her far away? She can almost feel the wind in her hair and the warmth of the girl’s waist under her fingers. It doesn’t even occur to her to wonder who the girl is. Her anonymity is part of the thrill for Kelsey — the fact that she could be anyone, but at the same time she seems too unreal to have any sort of concrete existence outside of Kelsey’s dreams. 

Kelsey half expects to never see her again. 

 

***

 

Apparently, Annie, who used to think fraternities and sororities were a heteronormative waste of time, is now the type of girl to get involved in frat wars. Might as well just pledge, at this point. 

She kicks back in her seat, back row of her Art History class, ten minutes early, and drinks her coffee, reflects. What happened to the girl whose M.O. was  _ stay in the shadows, make no waves _ ? It was essential to her survival, back in high school, where she never stayed long enough to become Someone, and where she had no choice but to be invisible, lest she became an outcast and thus a target for bullies. 

Kelsey was probably right. This is not a sustainable way of life if you want to thrive in college. 

But like. 

There’s a gap between sticking to the shadows being nobody, and showing up on a motorcycle to drive away an entire frat of bullies. It’s exhilarating, if Annie’s honest with herself. Not only the enthralled look on Kelsey’s face, but also the feeling of power she had on the bike. Like nothing could reach her. 

“Spill,” Niki says, sliding in the next seat. 

“Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, it’s the talk of the school. A mysterious individual on a motorcycle terrorized the Sigma Kappas and saved the Lambda-Beta cookout.”

“So?” 

“How many people with bikes do you know on campus? People who would stop and chat with Lambda’s Sweetheart Kelsey Impicciche?”

“Shut up, Niki, geez!” Annie looks around, frantically checking to see if anyone is listening.

“So you admit it’s you.”

Annie hides her face in her hands and groans. 

“I didn’t mean to! I just… I was nearby and I heard shouts, and when I saw those bullies… something took over. I didn’t even realized I was masked until I went up to Kelsey and she didn’t know who I was.”

“So you decided to keep up the masked vigilante bit to seduce her?”

“I was about to take my goggles off, I swear… but then her boyfriend arrived. It’s dumb, I know, but I could swear we had a moment.”

“Oh honey,” Niki puts a comforting arm around her shoulders. “The straight girl with a boyfriend. We’ve all been there.”

“I don’t think she’s straight, I mean, what about that kiss at the bowling alley?”

“Still, she’s in a relationship, honey. You don’t wanna mess with that.”

“I don’t know, she didn’t seem like she remembered having a boyfriend before he showed up.”

“Just be careful, babe.”

 

***

 

Kelsey’s got it bad. It’s gotten to the point where she gets butterflies whenever she hears a loud rumble in the distance, anything that might be mistaken for a motorcycle. She can’t stop thinking about the mysterious biker, hoping she’ll get to see her again, but without much hope. If she were a student, Kelsey feels like she’d seen her around campus again, but for two entire weeks, nothing. 

Kelsey throws herself in her schoolwork, goes to the gym even more often, and volunteers for any activity that gets her out of the house and out of her head. 

Because when she gets too into her head she starts believing she imagined the whole thing. Of course there was no mysterious biker who coincidentally hit every single one of Kelsey’s buttons, that would be absurd. Ridiculous, even. 

Almost as ridiculous as the way her entire body perks up when she hears the rapidly approaching sound of a roaring engine, late on a Saturday afternoon. She bails in the middle of practice for the talent show, deaf to her sisters’ protests, and runs out of the house. 

For once, the sound was indeed a bike, and what’s more, it’s  _ the _ bike. With  _ the  _ girl on it. Slowing down as she approaches Kelsey. She leaves the engine on as she hands Kelsey a pink helmet and goes, “How about that ride?” in a deep, rumbling voice that shakes Kelsey to her core. 

Kelsey puts the helmet on and climbs behind the girl. She gingerly holds on to her shoulders at first, but as soon as the bike is kicked into gear, she yelps and wraps her arms around her waist. 

Kelsey doesn’t know the girl’s name, or her face, or where she came from, but as they zip through highways until they reach quiet country roads, only one thing matters. 

She knows she’s safe with her. 

It’s exhilarating, the speed, the wind, the feel of the leather under her fingers, against her cheek. Nothing in her life has ever felt so right. 

The sun is setting as the girl stops the bike at the top of a cliff, a large expanse of rock jutting out the side of the road. Perfect to sit and watch the sunset. Kelsey takes her helmet off, shakes her hair back into place. 

The girl purses her lips, twists her fingers together, as if debating with herself. Like she’s not sure she wants to unmask just yet. Regardless of her reasons, Kelsey’s kind of into this anonymity, so she doesn’t mind keeping it up a bit longer. 

“Leave it on,” Kelsey says, grazing her fingertips along the edge of the helmet. “It’s okay.”

Tension leaves the girl’s shoulders and she leans in a bit closer. 

The sky looks like it’s on fire, all pinks and oranges, and through its reflection in the girl’s goggles, Kelsey can’t see her eyes. But she knows she’s looking at her and it’s turning her insides to jelly. 

“It’s beautiful,” Kelsey says, turning away to look at the sky. 

“Yeah,” the girl breathes out, and Kelsey can still feel her eyes on her. It sends a thrill throughout her body — the feeling of being wanted. 

Blushing, she reaches to lace their fingers together. The girl’s hands are soft and warm, and Kelsey feels like nothing in the world matters but the point where their hands are joined together. Names and faces and all that stuff mean nothing when holding hands feels that incredible. 

As the sun dips behind the horizon, the air becomes a bit chilly, and the girl jumps to her feet, holds out her hand to help Kelsey up. 

“We should head back — you don’t have a jacket, the wind’ll be cold.”

Kelsey doesn’t want the night to end, but she kinda likes how the girl cares about her, doesn’t want her to be cold. 

“You’ll just have to cuddle me, then,” Kelsey says with a grin. 

“I’d like that.”

Now or never. 

Kelsey pulls the girl in closer, her other hand going up to rest on the back of her neck. 

“Yeah?”

Nods. 

Their lips meet, and it should be awkward, with the helmet and the goggles, but it’s not. It’s wonderful, just the perfect blend of sweet and  _ I wanna do things to you _ . Kelsey wants to tell the girl to take her to her place, wants to forget she’s got a sorority house and responsibilities, and a class in the morning. Her hands fist in the soft leather of the girl’s jacket, insistently, curious to see what’s underneath. A whimper.

“Come on,” the girl says, breaking the kiss, but her usually deep voice is higher pitched, wavering. 

Kelsey shivers. 

“Here,” the girl offers, shrugging off her jacket and draping it over Kelsey’s shoulders. 

“Aren’t you gonna be cold?”

The girl blushes, but her voice is steady again when she says, “I feel like I’m on fire right now, babe.”

 

***

 

Kelsey’s knees still feel like jelly when she gets off the bike in front of the Lambda house. She drapes the leather jacket on the bike seat with the borrowed helmet, nervously playing with her hair. 

The girl kicks the bike on its stand and gets off. They stand not one feet apart, and Kelsey can feel the warmth of her body chasing the chill night air. 

The girl’s hands go up to her helmet. 

“Are you sure?” Kelsey asks, grazing her hands, not knowing if she should stop her, if she wants to. 

As the girl nods, the door of the sorority house slams open, light pouring on the lawn and girls stomping out in a chorus of  _ where were you _ s and  _ the rehearsal _ s and  _ who’s that _ s, as well as one  _ what about Ryan.  _

This is when Kelsey realizes that not only she’s got herself in trouble but she might have messed things up for Ryan and Shane too, who trusted her. 

She takes a step back, and can see the hurt on the girl’s face. 

“I think you’d better go.” It kills Kelsey to say it, but she has to — before she throws her entire life away to run off with an incredible biker chick. 

“See you at the talent show,” the girl says before racing away in the night. 

_ The talent show? _

So she  _ is  _ a student here. And probably someone Kelsey knows. 

 

***

 

From that night on, Kelsey’s every waking thought is spent wondering who the mysterious biker is, feeling bad for the way they ended the night, and avoiding her sisters’ many questions. It’s no wonder she fails an essay — who’s got time for Hamlet when your very life is worthy of a Shakespeare play? 

Luckily, she’s usually a good student, and so her teacher allows her to rewrite it to make up her grade. On Evan’s advice, she asks for Annie’s help — she’s helped the boys a lot, and they get along pretty well at talent show rehearsals, once they got over the awkwardness of the kiss Kelsey sprung on her. 

They meet for burgers in town, in this little retro joint Kelsey loves because it makes her want to put on a poodle skirt and pick a song on the jukebox. She can’t help imagining the mysterious biker girl walking in to sweep her off her feet, and so she’s blushing a bit when Annie walks in, hoping she’s not a mind-reader. (Hey, it  _ could _ happen! Maybe she goes to school with the next Professor Xavier and doesn’t even know it.)

After they order, Kelsey shuffles her notes self-consciously, trying to hide the big red F on the first page of her essay. 

“I don't usually do this bad in English.” She can’t help but add a disclaimer, because Annie’s clever and does so well in school… it’s hard not to feel inferior about having to ask for her help. “It’s just… I got other stuff on my mind these days.”

Annie gives a look of concern. “Anything I can help with?”      


“Nah, it's not school.” Just like ripping a band-aid, Kelsey slams her paper between the two of them on the table. “Let's get this over with.”

“All right. Where do you want to start?”              


Kelsey sighs, shoulders sagging. “It's this girl…”

“What girl?”                     


Kelsey shakes her head, ponytail flicking. “Forget it.”

“I'm trying. You're not making it easy.”

“I had this idea of Mr. or Ms. Right. A stupid idea, right?”

“Right.” Annie nods, obviously indulging her. 

“Out of nowhere she shows up! Like in some dream or something.”

“Who?”

“Ms. Right!”

“Oh, right.”

“I've seen her twice and both times, she's wearing these goggles. I don't even know who she is.”

“Ms. Right?”

“Isn't that kind of weird?” Kelsey asks in a conspiratorial whisper, scrunching up her nose. “Not  _ weird _ weird but, like, exciting weird.”

“So, what's the problem?” Annie glances at the paper, and Kelsey wonders if she should have paid for therapy rather than a tutor. She’s rambling again, isn’t she?

“Maybe she's just not everything I imagined. What if I built her all up in my head? And like. I have a boyfriend,” Kelsey adds, almost as an afterthought.

“Then what are you doing with this girl?” Annie asks, and if Kelsey didn’t know any better, she’d say Annie’s breathless.

For ten awkward seconds that feel more like ten hours, they stare at each other, only broken by the waitress bringing their food.

“What if we get back to Shakespeare?”

“Kelsey.”

“I figured out Hamlet's problem.” She takes a big bite out of her burger, anything to stop feeling Annie’s big eyes on her. “No ketchup!”

“He got along okay without it.” Annie deadpans.

“They never put ketchup on! How can you eat a burger with no ketchup? Shoot that over here.” She makes a grabby hand at the bottle and Annie passes it to her. “Where were we?” she asks, after ketchupping her burger to her liking.              

“You figured out the problem with their hamburgers,” Annie supplies.

“You know what his big problem is?” Kelsey declares. “No laughs! The guy's gotta lighten up, right? Bite?” She holds her burger at Annie, who’s picking at a plate of fries.

“No, thanks.” Annie shoots her a confused look. “Uh. Who are we talking about now?”

“Hamlet.”          


“Oh, right.” Annie wipes her hands on a napkin and holds up the paper to read aloud. “ _ Hamlet went nuts when he caught his mother doing it with his uncle _ .”

Kelsey cringes. “Not so great?”

“You have the right idea. But you could've said,  _ Hamlet was tormented by his mother's incestuous relationship with his uncle _ .”

“ _ lncestuous relationship _ ! Mason's gonna flip when she reads this.  _ Incestuous _ . You're a really smart girl, you know that?” Kelsey’s face falls. “You must think l'm a dummy.”

“Actually, l think you're kind of terrific.” Annie beams and Kelsey realizes it’s the first time she’s seen her actually smiling. She looks amazing like this. 

“Get outta here.” Kelsey grins. “You're the terrific one. You know all this deep junk.”

“I don't understand it any better than you. I just know a few big words that impress English teachers.”           


“You impressed me. And l give credit to who I want, okay? So learn how to take a compliment.”

Annie looks bewildered but she grins. “Alright.”

“A hamburger for my friend!” Kelsey calls towards the counter. “Loaded!”

“With ketchup.” Annie’s eyes are dancing and Kelsey never noticed how pretty they were before. 

“Double ketchup.”

“Y’know,” Annie says when her (double ketchup) burger arrives, “you’re sending me a lot of mixed signals.”

“Me? What?” Kelsey’s voice goes all high-pitched, like it does whenever she’s uncomfortable.

“You kiss me, then you say you have a boyfriend, but then you ask me out — I don’t usually tutor people at a burger joint, y’know? And we barely did any work. This feels a lot like —”

“Don’t say it,” Kelsey implores.

“— a date.”   


“Look. We're just different types, that's all. It wouldn’t work.”

“Different types?”

“Being a Lambda, it’s important to me. It’s a big part of my identity, and you… you’re not into that.”

“I’m into you.”

“There’s Ryan.” 

“Yeah, what’s the deal with him? You say you have a boyfriend but you’re all about that mysterious girl, and you kissed me?”

“It’s complicated.” 

Annie sighs, but slides the paper towards her, pulls a pen out of her jean jacket, and starts scribbling notes in the margins. She barely speaks, but she does what she promised — help Kelsey with her essay — and she leaves without a word, leaving her barely touched burger behind. 

Kelsey doesn’t have time to dwell on why screwing things up with Annie is making her feel so shitty, because Ryan walks in not two minutes later, Shane in tow. 

“Oh hey,” she says forlornly, leaning forward for their customary in-public peck on the lips. 

Ryan sits down without acknowledging it, closer to Shane than he usually feels comfortable to be in a public place. Shane picks at the fries Annie left behind. 

“Kels, I need to talk to you.” Ryan’s face is lit with barely contained excitement. 

“What’s up?”

“Shane and I…” Ryan takes Shane’s hand. “We’re ready to go public!”

“Oh my goodness, really? What about, like… the guys?”

Ryan leans in conspiratorially. “You gotta keep this to yourself, but, um, I walked in on Zack and Justin…” Ryan flails around a little, like he’s trying to put it delicately. “...making love, as they say.”

“Are you kidding?” Kelsey’s voice goes all high and she beams. “What the heck, that’s so cute!”

Ryan is blushing to the tip of his ears. “Cute wouldn’t be the word I would use for what I saw, but yeah, I’m pretty sure they’ll back me up if somebody tries to start shit with us.”

“That’s great! I’m so happy for you!”  _ Why does her voice sound so high and fake? _ She kisses both of them on the cheek to congratulate them, and she’s happy for them, she really is, but. 

But there’s a  _ but _ . 

There shouldn’t be a  _ but _ . Ryan and her are just friends, that’s all there ever was, she was doing him a favor. She doesn’t even like Ryan like this. 

So what’s up with that  _ but _ ?

_ But _ she feels lonely. 

_ But  _ she just turned away Annie, who’s perfectly lovely and could be a great friend — or more, if Kelsey got her head out of her ass. 

_ But _ she’s halfway in love with someone whose name she doesn’t even know. Someone she can’t even contact. She might never see the mysterious rider again, for all she knows. 

She might have taken this thing with Ryan for granted. Having someone, receiving affection, even if it was just for show. Now her friend is happy, looking at his boyfriend with actual stars in his eyes, and all she can think about is how she lost the person who held her hand in hallways, saved her a seat at lunch, her gym buddy. 

Nothing but a charade. 


	3. Act Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spoiler ahead but i feel like it's a necessary warning:  
> *  
> *  
> *  
> *  
> *  
> a character is believed dead, but it has a happy ending, i swear

Kelsey spends the next few weeks going through the motions. The only thing that keeps her afloat is the echo of that voice in her head,  _ See you at the talent show _ . 

She counts the days until she might see the anonymous biker again. Nothing matters to her but the possibility of seeing her again, talking to her again. Touching her again. 

Schoolwork, of course, is at the very bottom of her priority list, and she probably would need Annie’s help again, if if things weren’t so strained between them. 

They haven’t spoken since that time at the diner. When they bump into each other on the quad, or at the cafeteria, Annie only gives her a polite nod. Sometimes, Kelsey finds herself staring a bit too long, and catches a glimmer of hope in Annie’s eye, but it’s quickly quenched when Annie realizes she’s being watched. 

It pains Kelsey probably more than it should for someone who’s never really been her friend. 

 

***

 

The night of the talent show comes, and Kelsey’s nerves are a frantic mess. Not the same kind of nerves that have her sisters rehearsing the moves, the lyrics, over and over, barely eating, blasting their song on repeat. No, this kind of nerves have her thoughts spiraling, surrounding her in a haze, counting down the seconds. 

The talent show is an afterthought. All Kelsey can think about is what she’ll do when she sees the girl again. What she’ll say. If the girl is gonna show up at all. 

Only her natural athleticism and the fact that her body memorized the moves weeks ago allow her to go through one decent last run of their act with her sisters before leaving the house. 

Outside the auditorium, people are mingling, talking about who they’re looking forward to seeing on stage. Ryan is proudly holding Shane’s hand, beaming up at him while Justin walks around with a hand in Zack’s backpocket. 

Kelsey’s too keyed up to take part in conversations, instead listening closely for a familiar rumble in the distance — the engine she keeps hearing every night in her dreams, taking her away from it all. 

When she finally hears it, it takes her a minute to realize it’s not her imagination, not a daydream. The growl of the engine sounds closer and closer, and at last she can make out a dark silhouette in the distance. Shivers run down Kelsey’s spine, the engine’s purr thrumming in her veins. Her hands are shaking. 

The bike comes to a stop before her and she’s got half a mind to climb on it without a word and escape. The girl’s smile, peeking under her helmet, is as gorgeous as ever, and she holds out a hand to Kelsey. 

“You came!” Kelsey breathes out. 

A second rumble, louder this time, resounds through the street. Three cars, black lowriders with the windows down, screech to a halt in front of the auditorium. 

“It’s her!” the driver of the first car grunts out. 

“She’s gonna pay!” shouts another. 

Sigma Kappa. Still sore that they got their asses handed to them by a girl at the cookout. 

The girl swears under her breath. “I have to go,” she says hurriedly, letting go of Kelsey’s hand to cup her cheek briefly. The touch burns with promises on Kelsey’s face long after her hand left.

“Be careful!”

She’s gone in a blink, the three cars racing after her. Kelsey runs up to Ryan. 

“Do you have your car?” she gasps, out of breath. 

“Yeah, it’s in the —”

“We need to follow them.”

Ryan’s got Kelsey’s back, no questions asked, even though half a dozen come to mind, like  _ why?  _ and  _ who’s that girl?  _ and  _ what about the talent show?  _ Still, he keeps his mouth shut and runs to his car, Kelsey in tow. It’s the least he can do after asking her to be his pretend girlfriend for the better part of the school year. 

Luckily, the Kappas haven’t gone too far yet and Ryan finds them easily, racing through town after the biker, who’s trying to lose them by cutting through narrow alleys and parking lots. Kelsey’s grip is white over the dashboard, her breathing short. She doesn’t have to ask for Ryan to go faster, almost rear-ending the last car at every turn. 

Too late, they notice the  _ DEAD END _ sign at the entrance of a bridge under construction on the other side of town. The car skids to a stop. 

So do the three lowriders, their occupants tumbling out to see past the sign. 

The bike is nowhere to be found. 

“She’s not down there,” a Kappa calls. 

“Whaddya mean, not down there, she can’t be up there!” another answers, pointing at the sky. 

Kelsey runs out of the car, hurls herself at the railing. Before her is a gaping ravine. She can barely make out the other side in the dark, moonless night. No familiar rumble of engine to be heard. She chokes back a sob, hugging herself against the chill wind. No one could have made that jump. 

Ryan drives her back to the auditorium in silence, knowing she needs space even though he doesn’t know who the rider was to her. They’re greeted in the parking lot by a group of Lambda girls rushing at them. 

“Where were you?” YB asks urgently. 

“We’re up in fifteen minutes!” Devin presses. 

Kelsey lets herself be led inside, where she changes into her costume on autopilot. Nothing around her feels real, not the music coming in from the stage, not the girls touching up their make-up around her, not YB’s voice asking if everything’s okay. 

How can a world be real where  _ She _ is not in it? How can Kelsey go on without her? It all seems so unfair. Losing her when they only just found each other. A cruel joke. Kelsey doesn’t even know her name. Her face. They’ve never even been on a real date, or talked all night, or woke up together. Kelsey already misses all these things they’ll never do. 

She walks on stage like she’s in someone else’s body, guided by YB holding her hand. 

The only thing that registers is Sara from art class mic’ing her up. This is usually Annie’s job — but Annie’s nowhere to be seen. Kelsey doesn’t know why she’s latching onto this detail, why she cares about a girl who won’t talk to her missing from the talent show, but tears roll down her cheeks freely now. Sara gives her a strange look. 

“Are you sure you should go on stage?” Sara asks. 

Maybe Kelsey shrugs. Maybe she keeps crying. The next hours are but flashes in her mind. Dancing on stage, the crowd barely visible through her tears. Ryan and Shane driving her back home. Running out of tears and falling asleep. 

In her dreams, she hears the engine again, but the motorcycle drives away by itself, with no one to drive it. She wakes up in tears. 

Her phone chimes and she scrambles to find it in the tangle of her bedsheets. For some reason, her first thought is Annie texting her. Explaining her absence. 

Instead, it’s a calendar reminder. Today is the big end of year tropical bash. Putting on a bathing suit and a happy face is the last thing she wants to do, but as a Phi Lambda, she has to. The party is opened to all students, but the fraternities and sororities organize it together every year to honour the talent show winners. Tradition dictates she has to at least make an appearance. 

She hides her bikini under an oversized grey Lambda sweatshirt, pulling her hair in a messy, unbothered ponytail. Completing the look is an uncharacteristic resting bitch face that would make Annie proud. The thought makes Kelsey smile for half a second before she realizes just how much she misses her. It might be stupid, because they really only hung out that one time, but it was some of the most fun she’s had all year. 

Y’know, before she messed it up. 

She spends the day in a spiral: mourning her mysterious rider, hoping Annie will show up at the party, feeling guilty that she’s not spending every second crying for the biker, hating herself for pushing her sisters away all year, so much that none of them dare approaching her to ask what’s wrong. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Beach balls, inflatable flamingos, salsa music — all of it seems like it’s personally attacking Kelsey for not being her cheerful self. Only Ryan gets her to crack a smile when he asks her to dance ‘for old times sakes.’

“Like, last month?”

“Something like that.”

They shake their asses to some old school Sean Paul, but her heart’s not in it. Ryan pulls her into a tight hug. 

“Whenever you feel ready to talk, I’ll be here.”

Kelsey kisses his cheek in thanks and turns away quickly — she’s gonna start bawling again if he keeps making these sad eyes at her. 

A rumble in the distance. 

“Is it supposed to rain?” Ryan asks, cluelessly looking up at the cloudless sky. 

Kelsey’s heart skips a beat. Or even two, maybe. 

Could this be —

The rumble gets louder, closer, and Kelsey runs towards it, pushing people out of her way. 

The bike stops in front of her, the engine quiets down. 

_ She _ steps off the bike. 

“I thought you were dead,” Kelsey squeaks breathlessly. She doesn’t dare approach, scared of breaking the illusion. Surely she’s been driven mad by the pain and it’s all in her head. 

The biker’s hands go up to her helmet and Kelsey holds her breath. Her heart seems to be making up for the beats it missed, pounding hard inside her chest. 

Helmet and goggles off, a cascade of short black hair fall into place, framing the shy looking face of —

“Annie,” Kelsey breathes out. 

Without a single thought, she bridges the gap between them and takes Annie’s face between her hands. She kisses her, deep and desperate, a kiss that says  _ you _ , a kiss that says  _ I thought I’d never get to kiss you — I thought I’d never get to kiss you again _ . The pieces of the puzzle click into place, the two girls who occupied Kelsey’s brain all year are just one and the same, and Kelsey’s helplessly, extraordinarily in love. 

Annie breaks the kiss, panting. “I never thought you’d kiss me like that if you knew who I really am.”

Beaming, Kelsey pops the collar on Annie’s leather jacket, appreciating her full look without the helmet. She’s gorgeous and Kelsey’s got a feeling she won’t be able to keep her hands to herself very long. 

“Are you kidding? I got two for the price of one. That time at the diner…” Kelsey looks down. “I’ve regretted it ever since.”

“What about your boyfriend?”

Kelsey jerks her head towards where Shane is giving Ryan a piggy back ride around the pool. “Beard arrangement. Sorry I had to keep his secret.”

Annie looks around at the party still going on. 

“Can we get out of here?” she asks tentatively. 

“Yes please.”

“Are you certain? I don’t want to steal you from your friends.”

“I’ve never been certainer.”

“More certain.” Annie corrects, fondness dancing in her eyes. 

“The certainest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank y'all for coming along for the ride. this was incredibly self-indulgent and i'm beyond thankful that so many of you gave it a chance. long live all queer biker chicks out there <3 (and michelle pfeiffer)


End file.
